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Rachel Hindley

I never knew that Rachel is under KLRC ( a private malaysian badminton club i think? ). I guess it is hard for her to find a sponsor back in New Zealand but who wouldnt sponsor her!? shes way too cute to say no lol

rachel :)

Article From Rachel Hindley

Due to the large amount of travel that the National Squad has undertaken this year to play tournaments overseas, I thought I would discuss some of the issues that present themselves when trying to achieve a best possible performance.

Perhaps the first situation we are dealt with is the timing of our arrival to the first tournament overseas. Generally we arrive in the country 2-3 days prior to the tournament starting and this can be quite difficult as it usually takes a few days to adjust to the new time zone, particularly in Europe. After a long flight I find that my body is a lot stiffer and sorer which is why it is very important to stretch and walk around a lot during the flights and during any stopovers. I always find my first hitting session overseas incredibly difficult and as a result usually just use it to hit in the competition hall to get used to the conditions, whether there be drift, different lighting or high ceilings. Therefore when our first match is 3 days after we arrive I find it makes it very difficult to perform to your best when your body is still recovering and adjusting. It may seem like an easy solution to travel over earlier to avoid this problem but this poses other issues.

Depending on the country you are playing in, access to practice courts or even the competition courts prior to the tournament can be an issue. At a tournament in Holland this year, Rebecca and I turned up 5 days early and despite having communicated with the association that we required training courts, there were no courts available as they had not yet set up the competition hall and these were the only courts we could have used. Consequently we were unable to hit for 4 days prior to the tournament and the courts were only ready the day before play started. This was not exactly an optimal buildup prior to the tournament. Training courts can often have hard floors as well, which makes it tough on your body, particularly if you have just arrived from overseas.

At the grand prix tournaments training times are always allocated for each country and as New Zealand is relatively small we often have the use of only 1 court for all of us, which requires good organisation so everyone has a chance to practice and get used to the courts. With these issues in mind it is therefore not necessarily a good idea to arrive well before the tournament starts. Perhaps a better solution would be to break up a trip to Europe and spend a few days training in Singapore so that the time difference is not so great when you arrive in Europe.

Another aspect I find quite hard is playing multiple tournaments in a row. This cannot be avoided sometimes especially if we are playing overseas as it is not feasible to fly back and forth many times in a row, both in terms of resources and players ability to recover constantly. I have found after this year that my optimum number of tournaments would be two in a row before having another block of training. When you play a tournament there is quite a lot of rest and downtime involved depending on how far through the tournament you progress and therefore if you are to play three or more tournaments, come the third week I often feel a lack of continuity as training is very intermittent with a lot more rest involved or if we have played through to the finals, it can be very tiring finishing one on Sunday and then starting the next on Wednesday again.

I like to have a good block of training behind me when I play tournaments and therefore I have found that when you play multiple tournaments in a row it is extremely important that you are able to focus on the right things the further down the track you get. I try to have a few very specific focus points during the tournaments otherwise it is very easy to become unmotivated and lose focus when there has been a lack of structure in the previous couple of weeks due to competition. It is very easy to have focus during the first couple of tournaments when training has been building up to competition and it is fresh in your mind. However after a couple of weeks it becomes harder to still focus on what is important especially if the previous tournaments have not gone well.

These are just some of the issues we have to face and think about when playing internationally and I think they should be taken into consideration when trying to maximise players performances because sometimes you can feel prepared training wise prior to the competition but if you doní»t deal with changing conditions well then it can hinder your performance.

Sumo Badminton Club in Kelapa Gading Jakarta would love to sponsor her....even Travel and Emporium badminton club in Pecenongan and Mangga Besar would gladly welcome her....so I think she has 3 clubs in Jakarta to chosse from...Of course they are not as big as Jaya Raya or Djarum cos they are quite new and therefore can't afford Rachel....they will send a few players in Kerjurnas and SUrabaya challenge

Yes, she's a North Harbour player here in Auckland. But as with all the NZ squad members, they train at Gillies Ave. I used to partner her older sister in mixed doubles back in our junior days. Hmm, I wonder what happened to her?